How pluralistic is the research field on adult education? Dominating bibliometrical trends, 2005-2012

What the field of adult education research is and how it can be described has been a debated issue over the decades. Several scholars argue that the field today is heterogeneous, borrowing theories and methods from a range of disciplines. In this article, we take such statements as a starting point for empirical analysis. In what ways could it be argued that the field is pluralistic rather than monolithic; heterogeneous rather than homogenous? Drawing on bibliographic data of the top cited articles in three main adult education journals between 2005 and 2012, we illustrate how the citation patterns have tendencies of homogeneity when it comes to the geographical country of authorship, since the USA, UK, Australia and Canada dominate, as well as the research methods adopted, since qualitative approaches have near total dominance. Furthermore, there is a tendency to adopt similar theoretical approaches, since sociocultural perspectives, critical pedagogy and post-structuralism represent more than half of the articles in our sample. At the same time, the results of our analysis indicate signs of scholarly pluralism, for instance, in terms of authorship, since both early career researchers and established researchers are represented among the top cited publications. We conclude the article by arguing that empirical analysis of publication and citation patterns is important to further the development of reflexivity within the field, not least for early career researchers, who might benefit from knowledge about what has been recognized among peers as worth citing in recent times. (DIPF/Orig.

A feasibility study of a network arch bridge with glulam arches

The drive of using more renewable material has increased the interest in timber bridges. This makes it more interesting in looking in to new ways of constructing timber bridges. Most timber bridges for road traffic are using an arch with a hanging deck suspended from the arch using vertical hangers. This master thesis has looked at the possibility of using a system (developed for steel arch bridges) that is using inclined hangers, “the network arch”. This system has proven to greatly lessen the bending moment in the arch for steel arch bridges. A parametric study has been performed to decide the influence of the different parameters of the bridge. The study was made using a finite element program to calculate different influence lines. These influence lines have then been the basis of the study. The study showed that by changing the stiffness of the arch and hangers the influence lines for the designing bending moment could be changed and the point for the critical section could be moved. The study has also showed that the problem with relaxing hangers was bigger than anticipated. Hanger relaxation is a problem for network arches and is due to the fact that a partial load of the bridge will deform the arch in a sideways movement. This movement will decrease the distance between the nodes for some of the hangers making them “to long” to take any load. The study was made on a hanger constellation using the same angle for all of the hangers. It was proven that the problem with relaxation was biggest close to the supports. This proved that another hanger constellation using a constant or parabolic change of hanger inclination would probably lessen the risk of relaxing hangers. The feasibility of the system was then tested by designing a 50 m long and 10 m wide network arch bridge with a hanger inclination of 55 degrees. A reference bridge with a more conventional design with vertical hangers has also been designed. This design showed that by using the network arch system the bending moment that was achieved was almost nine times smaller and the cross-section of the arch was almost half the size. The lessening of the bending moment also had a great impact on the tension perpendicular to the grain of the arch, a load that is a big problem for arches especially when using the Eurocode design standards

Removal of dental amalgam restorations in patients with health complaints attributed to amalgam: A prospective cohort study

Background The Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services initiated a project including experimental treatment for patients with health complaints attributed to amalgam restorations. Objective The aim was to evaluate changes of general health complaints in patients who participated in the project and had all amalgam restorations removed. Methods The project was designed as a prospective cohort study and organised by the Dental Biomaterials Adverse Reaction Unit in Bergen, Norway. The dental treatment was provided by the patient's local dentist. The main target group consisted of patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms, attributed to dental amalgam restorations (Amalgam cohort). The primary comparison group consisted of patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms without attribution to dental amalgam restorations (MUPS cohort). Primary outcome was self-reported general health complaints (GHC index) at follow-up 12-months after completed amalgam removal. Results In the Amalgam cohort, a significant reduction of GHC index from 43.3 (SD 17.8) at baseline to 30.5 (SD 14.4) at follow-up (mean reduction 12.8, SD 15.9; n = 32; P < .001) was observed. The change scores for GHC index indicated that the reduction of complaints was significantly higher (P = .004) in the Amalgam cohort compared with the MUPS cohort (mean reduction 1.2, SD 12.3, n = 28). After adjustment for age, gender, education and baseline GHC index, the mean adjusted difference was −8.0 (95% confidence interval from −15.4 to −0.5; P = .036). Conclusion In a group of patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms, which they attributed to dental amalgam restorations, removal of amalgam restorations was followed by a significant reduction of health complaints.publishedVersio

Novel targets and future strategies for acute cardioprotection: Position Paper of the European Society of Cardiology Working Group on Cellular Biology of the Heart

Ischaemic heart disease and the heart failure that often results, remain the leading causes of death and disability in Europe and worldwide. As such, in order to prevent heart failure and improve clinical outcomes in patients presenting with an acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction and patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery, novel therapies are required to protect the heart against the detrimental effects of acute ischaemia/reperfusion injury. During the last three decades, a wide variety of ischaemic conditioning strategies and pharmacological treatments have been tested in the clinic - however, their translation from experimental to clinical studies for improving patient outcomes has been both challenging and disappointing. Therefore, in this Position Paper of the European Society of Cardiology Working Group on Cellular Biology of the Heart, we critically analyse the current state of ischaemic conditioning in both the experimental and clinical settings, provide recommendations for improving its translation into the clinical setting, and highlight novel therapeutic targets and new treatment strategies for reducing acute myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion injury

Fine-mapping type 2 diabetes loci to single-variant resolution using high-density imputation and islet-specific epigenome maps

We expanded GWAS discovery for type 2 diabetes (T2D) by combining data from 898,130 European-descent individuals (9% cases), after imputation to high-density reference panels. With these data, we (i) extend the inventory of T2D-risk variants (243 loci,135 newly implicated in T2D predisposition, comprising 403 distinct association signals); (ii) enrich discovery of lower-frequency risk alleles (80 index variants with minor allele frequency 2); (iii) substantially improve fine-mapping of causal variants (at 51 signals, one variant accounted for >80% posterior probability of association (PPA)); (iv) extend fine-mapping through integration of tissue-specific epigenomic information (islet regulatory annotations extend the number of variants with PPA >80% to 73); (v) highlight validated therapeutic targets (18 genes with associations attributable to coding variants); and (vi) demonstrate enhanced potential for clinical translation (genome-wide chip heritability explains 18% of T2D risk; individuals in the extremes of a T2D polygenic risk score differ more than ninefold in prevalence).Peer reviewe

The State, civil society and the citizen: Exploring relationships in the field of adult education in Europe. By Michal Bron Jr., Paula Guimarães and Rui Viera de Castro (Eds.) (Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang, 2009) 229 pp. [Rezension]

Review of: The State, civil society and the citizen: Exploring relationships in the field of adult education in Europe. By Michal Bron Jr., Paula Guimarães and Rui Viera de Castro (Eds.) (Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang, 2009) 229 pp